Friday5: The #WorldCup Happened on Twitter

We all got a kick out of the #WorldCup, and Twitter showed it. As the FIFA World Cup excitement unfolded in Brazil, it also played out on the social media platform in a big way: fans across the globe discussed every exhilarating and emotional moment as it happened.

After all of the 64 thrilling matches, including Sunday’s dramatic final, Twitter compiled the numbers and released some pretty impressive-sounding statistics to illustrate just how massive the conversation has been since the start of the World Cup on June 12.

1. There were 672 million Tweets sent related to the 2014 #WorldCup

Whether fans were discussing the latest injury or reacting to a big goal, the crowd came to Twitter to discuss the games 672 million times, making it the highest number Twitter’s announced related to an event; it’s hard to compare the 32-day, 64-match World Cup to, for example, the single-game Super Bowl, the one-night Oscars, or the 16-day Olympics.

2. Fans shared the most during the Brazil vs Germany semi-final match

While fans were discussing the drama of the games every minute of every day, conversation really took off during each live match, as expected. Specifically, during the semi-final between Brazil and Germany fans sent more than 35.6 million Tweets, making this a new Twitter record for a single event.

3. Fans sent 618,725 Tweets per minute when Germany won the #WorldCupFinal

To no one’s surprise, three of the top five most-tweeted moments occurred during Brazil’s depressing 7-1 semi-final loss to Germany on July 8, while the other top moments came in the final match. Below are the top five moments that generated the highest peaks of conversation, measured in Tweets per minute (TPM), during the entire tournament:

Germany defeats Argentina to win the World Cup Final on July 13: 618,725 TPM

4. Brazil’s Neymar Jr. was the most mentioned player

Brazil’s Neymar Jr. and Argentina’s Lionel Messi were the most mentioned players on Twitter during the World Cup. Coming in third place was Uruguay’s Luis Suárez due to the infamous biting incident rather than his fútbol skills.

5. The conversation around the World Cup has truly been global

The World Cup lived up to its name with the Twitter conversation reaching nearly every country across the globe. Click here to see a map of how the games have played out on Twitter, with the entire tournament in 60 seconds, from beginning to end. You can also explore individual games too with Twitter’s maps for each match.

While the month-long celebration of the World Cup is over, there’s plenty more to discuss – and Twitter is making sure to remind users that it’s a great place to engage in conversation around real-time events as they’re unfolding. The World Cup proved just that.